Page 55 of Throne of Ice and Blood
Disgust flickers in Galen’s eyes. “Did you know that during the first six years after he swore allegiance to the Icehearts, Draven didn’t use the half-shift at all. As a gesture of respect and submission.” He scoffs. “Like some kind of?—”
He cuts his sentence off in a heartbeat as the side door is yanked open and Draven strides back in.
I flick my gaze towards him. His hair is slightly disheveled, as if he has been running his hands through it repeatedly. But he does look less inclined to murder someone.
Oppressive silence falls over the dining room table as Draven strides towards the head of the table. His clan members lower their chins in a show of deference as he drops down in his seat. From my place on the floor, I can see the expressions on their faces that Draven can’t from his angle. Disdain and hostility once more lace their features like ice.
I let out a small sigh.
This is going to be a long hour.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
When we finally return to Draven’s rooms, it feels as if I have a thrashing lightning storm raging inside my body. There is too much outrage. Too much anger. Too much frustration. Too fragile hope. It’s just… too much.
“Are you okay?”
Whirling around, I find Draven standing only a step away. His golden eyes gleam in the faelights as he studies my face intently, as if trying to read the answer to his question there.
“What do you think?” I retort.
He doesn’t get annoyed by my curt reply. Instead, he just reaches out and removes the iron collar from my throat.
A sigh of relief escapes my lips as that cold feeling disappears from my throat, and magic and strength flood back into my body. I run a hand over my throat while Draven sets the collar down on the low table by the couches next to us.
That storm of emotions tears through my soul again.
Anger crackles inside me. I just spent an hour on my knees next to Draven’s chair, watching Isera and Alistair be humiliated by the Icehearts. And before that, I crawled across the floor and licked his boots in front of the entire banquet hall.
It all hits me too hard and too deep and I just… snap.
Twisting towards Draven, I give him a hard shove. “How could you let them do that to me?”
Since he was still half bent over from placing the collar on the table, the shove actually makes him stagger to the side. He blinks, looking genuinely surprised, as he straightens and turns to face me.
I shove him in the chest again. “How couldyoudo this to me?”
This time, since he’s standing upright, the shove does absolutely nothing to push him back. Which just infuriates me even more. I slam my palms against his armored breastplate in frustration while my voice rises to a shout.
“You made me kneel and crawl and lick your fucking boots!”
In a flash, his hands wrap around my wrists, stopping them before I can try to shove him back again. But there is no anger on his features. Only resignation.
“You know why I had to do that.” His eyes are serious as he holds my gaze. “Whywehad to do that.”
“I don’t care! It was the most humiliating thing I have ever had to do.”
He clenches his jaw as I yank and struggle like a feral animal against his grip on my wrists. With a sigh, he suddenly takes a step forward. And since he’s still keeping my wrists in a firm grip, it forces me to move back. A snarl rips from my throat, and I struggle even harder.
“Stop fighting,” he presses out while still trying to keep a grip on me. “You?—”
“Stop fighting?” I scream back at him. “I will not?—”
He pushes me up against the wall, which surprises me enough that I cut my sentence off halfway through. I hadn’t realized that we had moved so far.
Draven moves my hands away from his breastplate and instead pins them against the cool ice wall on either side of myhead while he presses closer to me and braces his knee against the wall between my legs. My heart pounds in my chest as I stare up at him.
“This armor is made of dragon scales.” He locks commanding eyes on me. “You’re going to shatter the bones in your hands before you ever make a dent in it. So yes, stop fighting. Rin Tanaka is with her own clan, in their home, which is halfway across the continent. So if you break your hands, there is no one here who can heal you.”
